“I can’t even tell you how I found
the strength to get up every morning. And yet, every morning, I did get up and
go to school (173).”
The character of Junior in Sherman Alexie’s Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian shows
so much strength. His strength makes him resilient and determined. He is able
to face numerous hardships and keep living on. His strength is fascinating and inspiring
but what is truly amazing is his ability to find the good still left in his life
after the grief ravaged it. Junior has the incredible ability to release the
negative and cling to the joy in his life. Without joy he would be a sturdy but
empty shell, strong but lifeless.
Junior’s strength is tested many
times throughout the book. He lost his best friend Rowdy, the respect and acceptance
of his community, his grandmother, his uncle, and his sister. His dad was an alcoholic,
he had to hitch hike to school, and his family had no money but still he was
able to find joy. Rowdy was awful to Junior after he switched schools. He hit
him and called him nasty things, he even knocked him out but Junior did not remember
those things when he looked at Rowdy. He remembered eating pie with him on
Thanksgiving and swimming in Turtle Lake. When his community turned their backs
on him he didn’t hold it against them. When his grandmother died he marveled at
the Indians’ capacity for laughter even in the face of grief. When his father
took off with his family’s money before Christmas and then showed up after New
Year’s with only a five dollar bill as a gift, Junior was not angry. He was
touched by his dad’s small gift. The ability to find joy in such awful
situations shows so much strength and character for such a young boy.
Junior’s outlook on life is an inspiration to
adolescents and adults everywhere. People everywhere go through horrible
situations that knock them off their feet and they can decide to lie down and
let it destroy them or they can jump back up and keep going. Sometimes it is hard
to believe that there is joy underneath the heavy pile of sorrow but Junior lets
readers know that there is and that sometimes finding it is the only way to
carry on. Junior says it best at the end of “Valentine Hear,”“I kept trying to
find the little pieces of joy in my life. That’s the only way I managed to make
it through all of that death and change (176).”
This is part of what makes Junior a strong character who draws in his readers, isn't it? I think it's interesting to compare his search for the small joys with Melba's attitude toward her days at Central High School in Little Rock. Would you say she approaches her experience the same way? Or does she have a different approach?
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